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eG Foodblog: gsquared


gsquared

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Who would want to follow such a gourmet and excellent photographer as you? :biggrin:

Say, what's a "sarmie"? ("So, early sarmie for the wife and maybe just a stir-fry (chicken and noodles?) later for the guest.")

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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I'm absolutely awestruck! Enjoying your blog immensely. I try to pay attention to plating as well, but have to admit yours blows mine out of the water!

Love the spoons... very innovative! For me, that's a big, big part of the pleasure of cooking -- making stuff up!

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Squeat

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In the UK its usually with an "n" - sarnie. You might have a cucumber sarnie, or a an egg sarnie or tinned salmon sarnie. More refined than its op north version, a Butty (as in Chip Butty or Bacon Butty) - thick white bread, lots of butter and whatever filling..

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No volunteer yet for next week's blog.........

And you're surprised???

My first thought when you asked was "No way anyone is going to derail this pleasure cruise".

Thank you so much for sharing your lovely home and fantastic meals with us. Should you experience a desire to adopt, I qualify as an orphan and will gladly work for food and ambiance :smile:

Katie M. Loeb
Booze Muse, Spiritual Advisor

Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

Cheers!
Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
Captain Liberty of the Good Varietals, Aphrodite of Alcohol

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[quote name=gsquared' date='Jan 28 2004, 03:18 PM Should you experience a desire to adopt, I qualify as an orphan and will gladly work for food and ambiance :smile:

:laugh::laugh:

What's wrong with peanut butter and mustard? What else is a guy supposed to do when we are out of jelly?

-Dad

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Stunning pictures.  Your set table looks like a tableau from a home magazine.  It's the perfect antidote to the snow outside my window.  :smile:

Blov, dear, I suggest there is no antidote for this damned snow except some warm weather, which per the weatherman isn't in the offing yet :wink:. I'm about three hours south of you, and we're sick of it. But this certainly is an absolutely superb blog. Compared to the visual feasts gsquared has been providing, my plating looks like the stuff my grandfather used to slop the hogs with in west Texas :laugh:.

THW

"My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne." John Maynard Keynes

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How did your interest in (and skill with) food develop? When did you first begin cooking in earnest?

When I retired last year, Jenny, the wife and I decided on a sort of role reversal. She wanted to launch a career as an artist and we agreed that I would take over the household and provide the support for her that she did for me when I worked full-time. Cooking started off as part of my chores and quickly became a passion.

Gerhard Groenewald

www.mesamis.co.za

Wilderness

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Should you experience a desire to adopt, I qualify as an orphan and will gladly work for food and ambiance

Success at last! This blog, Katie, is a fiendish plot to lure susceptible (and preferably nubile) young women to Africa where they will be kept in durance vile. Phone me for your plane ticket. :biggrin:

Gerhard Groenewald

www.mesamis.co.za

Wilderness

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No one is going to want to follow this :blink: Your platings are amazing! I almost wish I were in SA. :smile:

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Early hours of the morning - 5 am. Old habits die hard. This is the time of day when our energy levels are high and the creative juices are flowing. The wife is working furiously on her new Africa series

i2599.jpg

and I am trying to plan the rest of the week. My other activities are intruding on the even tenor of my cooking today and I have to put on my consulting hat. Literally. Why do so few men wear hats these days? I seldom venture forth without donning one of my hats. The current favourite is a brown Acubra from Aus.

i2602.jpg

For the rest we have another sleep-in guest arriving today, and yet another tomorrow. So, tonight there will be two guest for dinner and tomorrow night three. That is, of course, if nobody else drops in. I will think about dinner whilst braving the traffic this morn.

Gerhard Groenewald

www.mesamis.co.za

Wilderness

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No volunteer yet for next week's blog.........

I miss the days when someone had to be beaten into submission before acquiescing and agreeing to do the next blog.

They seem like just yesterday.

Herb aka "herbacidal"

Tom is not my friend.

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Got room for one more?

Always! That is probably the mantra for my meals the past few weeks - "Got room for one more?" :smile:

What did you do before cooking (career-wise)?

I headed up the software development team for an investment bank.

Gerhard Groenewald

www.mesamis.co.za

Wilderness

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No volunteer yet for next week's blog.........

I miss the days when someone had to be beaten into submission before acquiescing and agreeing to do the next blog.

They seem like just yesterday.

You're right herbicidal it was just like yesterday. I put my name forward for the one after Al-dente's BUT there is no way in hell I'm gonna put my name forward after gsquared's. I think I'll wait like a year or two after this :biggrin:

Regards

Tom

I want food and I want it now

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BUT there is no way in hell I'm gonna put my name forward after gsquared's. I think I'll wait like a year or two after this :biggrin:

Regards

Tom

Me too :blink::biggrin:

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Gerhard, I did get a response to the question of whether cooking with wine is haram. It is:

Mufti Ebrahim Desai, who is South African (his madrasah [islamic religious school] is in Camperdown), is reported to me to have said the following:

It is not permissible to cook in alcohol even if it evaporates in the

process. and Allah Ta'ala [means "most high"] Knows Best

This response was given to the following question:

Yeast produces carbon dioxide and ethanol (AKA alcohol) in the

bread-making process. However, the alcohol boils and/or evaporates off

while it is being baked. So the question is whether or not it is okay to

use alcohol for cooking if it will evaporate or boil off during the

cooking process, leaving the taste?

So this seems pretty definitive. And to top it off, a couple of other people independently said that it is haram to cook with alcoholic beverages (one said it was also haram for Muslims to serve them, which is something I've heard before), while no-one claimed it was halal.

By the way, a web link was given to Mufti Ebrahim's web site:

www.islam.tc

I was unable to find this particular Q&A there but have no reason to doubt that it was there.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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Very interesting. Thanks, Michael. It seems as if the presence of alcohol renders food haram and the fact that it evaporates in the cooking process does not change that state.

Gerhard Groenewald

www.mesamis.co.za

Wilderness

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Should you experience a desire to adopt, I qualify as an orphan and will gladly work for food and ambiance

Success at last! This blog, Katie, is a fiendish plot to lure susceptible (and preferably nubile) young women to Africa where they will be kept in durance vile. Phone me for your plane ticket. :biggrin:

Thanks Big Daddy! :laugh:

Katie M. Loeb
Booze Muse, Spiritual Advisor

Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

Cheers!
Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
Captain Liberty of the Good Varietals, Aphrodite of Alcohol

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Very interesting. Thanks, Michael. It seems as if the presence of alcohol renders food haram and the fact that it evaporates in the cooking process does not change that state.

Yes, evidently so. As I said, this is a question that had never occurred to me before, but it's interesting to know the answer.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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Not a good food day at all. My business lunch went well, business-wise. Food-wise, it was less good. Fortunately the food was a side issue. The house red came from a box (I saw it) and was a particularly vile representative of the species. The pasta was forgettable but the lemon meringue was, given what went before, surprisingly good. I was late getting home and the wife and guest were putting on the glad rags to go to the theatre. They were hungry. I Wandered around the kitchen with that Bleh! feeling. Looked in the fridge without really seeing what was in it. Looked in the veggie drawers. No inspiration. Do you ever have those times when you know you will produce something, but it is bound to be so-so, simply because you are Bleh!? Were it not for the guest, I would assuredly have phoned Mr. Delivery. This is a service that allows you to order from any one of 25 or so restaurants for home delivery. Not an option. Soldier on and be brave, mon cher. These are the times that are sent to test our mettle.

So:

Pan fried breaded pork cutlets on cream corn made using Keller's technique - remove the corn from four cobs, reserve half, blend the other half with two tablespoons of water (to get the blender going). Push through a sieve and place the liquid with the reserved corn over a low heat and simmer. The starch in the liquid thickens the corn liquid. Season. Corned cream with nothing but corn. Accompanied by caramelized fennel. Cook strips cut from the fennel head in water until softish but still with some crunch. Drain. Three tablespoons of sugar into pan. Melt and colour slightly. Add three tablespoons unsalted butter. Stir. Add fennel. The caramel with clump up because of the residual water on the fennel. Stir (or toss) well until the caramel dissolves. Cook over medium heat until the fennel acquires some colour. Just to add colour, a fine diamond dice of tomato.

The camera's batteries were on their last legs - the flash did not go off and hence all I can offer is a sort of orangey coloured effort with the food only vaguely discernable.

A goodly splash of Hennesy VSOP in the hand, he contemplated his navel pensively. "There is always tomorrow", he muttered and sighed the sigh that only the frustrated cook can understand.

(I think I must grow a beard. It seems to me that there is nothing like being able to stroke your beard pensively.)

i2607.jpg

Gerhard Groenewald

www.mesamis.co.za

Wilderness

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I think your definition of bleh supercedes what I do on a good day. :laugh:

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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